


Careers, Callings, and Contract Killers

by myheadinthecoudsnotcomingdown



Category: Assassination Classroom
Genre: Assassin Shiota Nagisa, Crossdressing, F/M, Gen, Heist, Hope, Implied/Referenced Torture, Seduction, Terrorists, planning, professional assassins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-05 18:54:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25750162
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myheadinthecoudsnotcomingdown/pseuds/myheadinthecoudsnotcomingdown
Summary: What if things in the Assassination Classroom society were just a little worse? What if every school had an E class and getting booted there really was a death sentence for a child's future? What would a responsible teacher do in that situation? Would they let their kids be doomed to lives of meaningless poverty? Or would they encourage them to go for a more lucrative career?
Relationships: Akabane Karma & Shiota Nagisa, Akabane Karma/Okuda Manami, Class 3-E & Korosensei (Assassination Classroom)
Comments: 23
Kudos: 276
Collections: Assassination Classroom Big Bang 2020





	Careers, Callings, and Contract Killers

“Do you know what the special lesson is about?” Rio leaned forward to tap Isogai on the shoulder. “Hey class rep, do you know anything?”

Isogai shook his head, “I don’t have any idea. Maybe they want to talk to us about our future careers? It is that time of year.”

“Why should we worry about our future careers if we don’t even know if we’re going to  _ have _ a future?” Hazama asked. 

“She’s got a point.” Sugino said. “If we can’t kill Korosensei, there won’t be a world left to work in.”

“Guys, even if we  _ do _ kill him, we won’t have a future.” Kataoka grumbled. “We’re E class, remember?”

A heavy silence fell as the students considered that. Yeah, it was one thing to intellectually know that they didn’t have futures, but it hadn’t really kicked in what that  _ meant. _

“Good morning class!” Korosensei cheerfully blew into the room, followed by Karasuma and Professor Bitch at a more human speed.

“Morning Korosensei!”

“Alright kids, I hope you ate a good breakfast this morning, because we’re gonna be covering some pretty heavy stuff today!” Korosensei grinned, “Are you ready?”

“How can we know if we’re ready if you won’t even tell us what we’re talking about?” Karma drawled. 

“Yeah.” Rio said. “Get to the point!”

“So impatient!” Korosensei pouted. “Patience is a virtue, class.”

“Ugh, whatever!” Irina scowled. “We’re going to be talking about your futures, ok? Are you happy now?”

“Heh,” Rio leaned back in her seat, “called it!”

“You didn’t though.” Kayano siad. “Isogai was the one who brought up careers.”

“Same difference.”

“Normally at this time of year, we, as your teachers, would be helping you discover what colleges you wanted to apply to.” All eyes turned to Karasuma whose normally serious expression had become even more stern. “But you’re E class. Even with as far as you’ve come academically, colleges will throw away your applications and companies won’t bother to look at your transcripts. It’s a broken system, but it’s the way the world works and we can’t change it, at least not during your lifetimes.”

“Why do people have to be so blind?” Korosensei pulled out a handkerchief as he sobbed. “These kids have so much potential! They’ve been working so hard and they’ve come so far under my tutelage!”

“Yeah, whatever, octopus!” Irina glared at him. “But none of that changes that when it comes to future careers, their options are slim at best.”

Karasuma nodded, “According to the statistics, at least a quarter of you will end up unemployed and only one of you will make above minimum wage.”

“Did you come here just to make us depressed?” Okano asked. “Because it’s working.”

The teachers looked at each other for a long moment and Nagisa wondered just what was going on. Did they have a way for them to break those statistics? Knowing Korosensei, anything was possible. 

Karasuma sighed, “We’re here to give you a proposition. In a perfect world, you could leave this assissination classroom and move onto fulfilling careers, but that’s just not possible. We have been training you this entire year to be an elite team of assassins, which is a viable, but dangerous, career that is less picky about things like E class being on your resumes.”

Nagisa knew he wasn’t the only one that was shocked as Karasuma’s words sunk in, “I’m sorry sir, but did you just suggest that we should become  _ professional assassins? _ ”

“It’s a lucrative career.” Irina went over to sit on Korosensei’s desk. “You’ll definitely be making more than minimum wage and there’s a lot of variety in the field, so each of you could find a niche that you would find fulfilling.”

“That being said,” Kurosensi peered down at them gently, “it’s a very difficult career. Killing people for a living can take a mental toll even on the most determined assassins and is often physically taxing, not to mention the danger you will face on a daily basis.”

“As your teachers, we believe  _ all _ of you would make decent assassins and many of you would make excellent ones.” Karasuma said seriously. “We want what is best for you and that includes having fulfilling careers, not the soul crushing monotony that society wants to force you into.”

“You don’t have to decide anything right now.” Korosensei said gently. “In fact, we encourage you to really think through this decision to see if it really is what you want. But know that we will support you whether you chose to become professional assassins or pave your own path. We’re here for you.”

“That was a big bomb.” Irina said. “The first hour today is study hall, because let’s be honest, you weren’t going to pay attention to the lesson after that anyway. Do some homework or something like that if you want.”

Karasuma turned back as the teachers walked out the door, “We sincerely wish everything were different and you could all have your dream careers, but it’s our job as your teachers to help you make the best from what you’ve been given, and that includes letting you know  _ all  _ the opportunities available to you, even if those go against traditional morality. We believe that each of you will make the best decision for your lives. We’ll be in the teacher’s lounge if you have any questions.”

He closed the door behind him and there was a beat of silence before the class erupted. 

“What the hell?!”

“Are they really serious?”

“I mean, it makes a certain kind of sense…” Isogai said. “I mean, we all know what’s waiting for us after we graduate.”

“Yeah,” Rio grimaced “E class is kinda a death sentence.”

“What do you think about all this Nagisa?” Karma came over and sat on his desk. “Out of all of us, you show the most potential for killing people.”

Nagisa shrugged, “I mean, I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t considered it. I don’t have any other useful skills.”

“Hmm, but some of us do.” Itona pointed out. 

“Yeah!’ Terasaka yelled. “It’d be a shame if my boy Itona didn’t get to use his mad mechanic skills.”

“Well, it doesn’t matter much to you, Terasaka.” Karma smirked. “You’d be working minimum wage even if you weren’t in E class.”

“Say that to my face, you…”

Nagisa stared out the window as the class continued talking and arguing. Professional assassins. Killing Korosensei was one thing, he wasn’t actually human, but killing  _ people?  _ That was a big step, one that he wasn’t sure he was ready to take, especially after the class had talked him out of killing Takaoka back on Okinawa. But..what were his alternatives? Karasuma was right, the statistics weren’t in the favor of E class having a bright future, even if they’d improved thanks to Korosensei.

The rest of the day passed in a kind of somber weirdness, and Nagisa didn’t think anyone was really present enough to learn anything, even in their afternoon lessons. Everyone was in a daze thinking about if they were really going to be  _ assassins _ for the rest of their lives. Nagisa knew he was far from the only one who was still on the fence, but this was a big decision that each of them had to make for themselves. 

At the end of the day, Karma jogged to catch up with him as he started to walk down the path to the base of the mountain, “So, Nagisa, have you made your decision yet?”

“Not yet.” Nagisa frowned, “It’s not that it’d be a bad career, it’s just not what I ever saw myself doing as a kid. What about you, do you know what you’re going to choose yet?”

Karma shrugged, “I gotta admit, it’s one of the few careers that fits my personality and being a bureaucrat is a pipe dream now that I’ve got E class on my transcript. I think I’ll still sleep on it though, think it through like Teach said.”

“Good idea.” 

They walked a little farther, both caught up in their own thoughts, before Karma broke the silence, “It sure would be fun though.”

Nagisa looked at him in confusion, “What?”

Karma grinned mischievously, “Come on, don’t tell me you haven’t thought about what it’d be like if our whole class became assassins? We could all keep in contact and help each other on missions! We already know each other’s strengths and specialities, and it’d be easy to trust our classmates to have our backs. The assassination classroom could keep going even after we kill Korosensei.”

“That’s true.” Nagisa thought for a moment. “It’d probably be a good thing too because connections and networking are undoubtedly an important part of the industry.”

“Exactly!” Karma grinned wickedly, “We’d be unstoppable!”

“But are we really ready to kill people for a living?” Nagisa asked. “I mean, even if we call it  _ assassination,  _ it’s still murder, isn’t it?”

“We all jumped at the chance to kill Korosensei as soon as Karasuma mentioned the money.” Karma pointed out. “How is this any different?”

* * *

Mom was in one of her moods again by the time Nagisa got home. He honestly wasn’t sure she’d ever  _ not _ been in one of her moods ever since she realized that bribing the school wouldn’t take E class off his transcript. She’d spent most of the last semester trying to insist there must be some way to cover it up, and she still wouldn’t take no for an answer. Nagisa didn’t know how to make her see reality: her new playthrough on life had failed even more badly than her first one had.

“Maybe we should introduce you to the children of some CEOs?” Mom said as she dished a modest portion of food onto his plate. “If you marry one of them, I’m sure their father would be willing to ignore whatever...academic inconveniences you’ve had.”

Nagisa didn’t say anything as he picked at his food. If she thought that trying to marry up would make him successful instead of a social pariah, nothing he said was going to change her mind. Even if that wasn’t the case, that future didn’t appeal to him. He’d be living as some trophy husband, not his own person.

Apparently, he’d spaced out for longer than he’d thought, because suddenly Mom grabbed him by his pigtails, “Look at me when I’m talking to you! Dammit, Nagisa! It’s like I’m talking to a brick wall! Do you not appreciate your mother? Are you just spitting in the face of everything I’ve done for you? Do you not know how hard I work? Everything I do is for you!”

Nagisa blinked back a few tears as she roughly yanked the elastics from his hair. As soon as it fell around his shoulders, Mom immediately calmed down and smiled softly as she played with a few of the strands, “Your hair is so pretty, sweetie. I don’t know why you keep it up like that. You know I’m only trying to do what’s best for you, right sweetie? I just want you to have the best chances for success, you know?”

“Yeah, Mom.” Nagisa shot her a fake smile. ”I know.” 

But she wasn’t doing what was best for him, was she? Mom was doing what she thought was best for  _ her _ . At least Korosensei actually cared about Nagisa and who he was beyond just a second chance at life. He even trusted him to make his own decision about something as big as becoming an assassin. Karasum believed in him and his capabilities, rather than subtly implying that everything he did was a mistake. That was why he’d been the one chosen to take on Takaoka. Hell, even Professor Bitch treated him better than his mother did most days! 

Finally, Nagisa finished his food and was allowed to go to his room. He sat on the bed, processing everything that had just happened and sorting through his thoughts. If he became a professional assassin, he might finally have some control over his own future. His mother wouldn’t be able to try to force him into her dreams like an ill-fitting dress, and his teachers wouldn’t try. Plus, he’d be able to stay in contact with his friends and the few adults that actually treated him like a human being. 

Nagisa stood and looked at himself in the mirror as he redid his hair, letting his bangs fall down and cast a shadow over his eyes as he smiled.

Nagisa the Assassin. He was starting to like the sound of that.

* * *

When Nagisa opened the door to the classroom the next morning, he was surprised to realize that he was actually the last one to arrive. Apparently, his classmates had been just as anxious about their decisions as he had been, because all of them were ridiculously early. Most of them were sitting at or on their desks, talking in small groups, but they looked up when Nagisa walked in. 

Isogai cleared his throat, “Alright, now that everyone’s here, we can get started.”

“Wait, was this an official meeting?” Sugino asked.

“Well, no,” Isogai answered awkwardly.

“But are you really gonna say you don’t wanna talk about it before the teachers get here?” Rio asked. “If so, why did you even show up this early?”

“Good point.” Sugino said. “So...what did everyone decide.”

The class shuffled in their seats, everyone simultaneously glancing at each other while refusing to look anyone in the eye. Nagisa got it. No one wanted to be the first one to speak up, afraid that their classmates would judge them either way. If you were the only one that wanted to be an assassin, the rest of the class might think you were a terrible person, but if you didn’t, then they might think you were a coward. Either way, it was a huge risk. 

But Nasia was used to being rejected, and he needed to do what was best for  _ him. _ He took a deep breath to steel his courage, “I’m going to be an assassin.”

There was a moment of tense silence as everyone processed his words before Karma’s face split into a wide grin, “Awesome, Nagisa! We’re gonna have so much fun together!”

“Wait, you’re going to be an assassin too?” Teraseka asked.

“Hell yeah.” Karma’s grin didn’t spell anything good for his future targets. “It’s really the best fit for me, don’t you think?”

“I’m going to be one too.” Sugino said. “If I can’t be a baseball player, assination is the next best thing.”

“I just hope I’ll be able to find ways to use my gadgets.” Itona said quietly. “It’ll be a shame if my mechanics skills go to waste.”

“I’m sure you’ll find a way to make it work.” Isogai said confidently. “Your robots have already been pretty effective against Korosensei.”

“Chiba, Hayami, what about you?” Rio asked. “Are you two gonna keep being snipers?”

Hayami glanced at Chiba, who nodded, “I never thought I’d enjoy shooting this much. We’ll most likely try to work as a team, if possible.”

“Are assassination teams even a thing?” Maehara asked. “I thought it was all solo work?”

“Actually, according to what I could find, there are all kinds of assassins!” Ritsu piped up. “So a team should be just fine!”

“Oh, cool.”

“Alright,” Rio raised her voice slightly to be heard above the chatter, “everyone who is planning on being an assassin, raise your hand.”

Nagisa raised his hand confidently and looked around the classroom. His eyes widened in surprise as every single one of his classmates slowly raised their hands. Karma was smirking and looking bored as he raised his hand, Chiba and Hayami were as expressionless as ever, and most of the others looked either excited, nervous, or both, but one thing every single student had in common was the determined look in their eyes as they non-verbally challenged anyone to question their decision. 

“Oh, this is gonna be so awesome.” Karma breathed.

* * *

“Good morning class!” Korosensei said as he blew into the classroom, his arms full of books, “This morning, we’ll be talking about the function of poetry in....”

Isogai raised his hand, “Excuse me? Korosensei?”

“Yes, Isogai? What is it?”

Isogai looked around at the rest of the class and Nagisa nodded. Isogai turned back to Korosensei, “We’ve decided to become assassins.”

“Hmm,” Korosensei looked at them intensely, “and may I assume Isogai is speaking for all of you? I want to make sure you each came to your decision independently.”

“Yes sir.” Sugino straightened in his seat. “We’ve each given a lot of thought to what you and the other teachers said and we think that you’re right about assassination being the best option for our futures.”

Hara nodded, “We’ve been so much happier since we started training to kill you, sensei!”

“Aww!” Korosensei wiped his tears with a handkerchief, “That’s the sweetest thing you kids have ever said to me! But don’t think this means you’ll be able to slack off on your academic studies. In life, as in assassination, knowledge is power. But I’ll talk to the other teachers about giving you more specialized training in how to apply your various interests to assassination. Oh this is so exciting! I’m so proud!”

Nagisa smiled. Only Korosensei would get so excited about a group of middle schoolers wanting to kill people for a living.

* * *

Nagisa ran up the mountain, trying to avoid being late for class, thankful that P.E had been beefed up since they’d decided to become real assassins. There had been a terrorist attack downtown that morning, a bombing at a train station, so traffic had been terrible, but Nagisa had already been on his way to school by the time it happened, so he had decided to just go to class rather than going back home. Korosensei was more than capable of defending the class if there was another attack, after all. 

He was one of the last to arrive and the teachers were all standing in front of the room. Was this another joint lesson or was it about the attack? Karasuma nodded to him as he took his seat, but didn’t say anything as they waited for the last of the stragglers. Nagisa took his seat and looked around curiously, his eyes catching on Karma lounging in the back of the room. Despite his efforts to appear otherwise, Karma didn’t seem like his normal nonchalant self. For one, he was completely silent as he walked to his seat, but Nagisa figured it was understandable. The attack this morning had them all on edge. 

“Good morning class.” Karasuma began. “I have no doubt you’ve all seen the news.”

“It was crazy!” Rio yelled. “Do you guys know who did it?”

Karasuma held up his hand to silence the classroom, “Not completely, but we do have a few leads. I don’t think I need to tell you that nothing I’m about to say can leave this room, correct?” The class nodded and Nagisa leaned forward slightly as Karasuma continued, “From the intel we’ve received, a terrorist cell called the Liberation Dogs was responsible for this morning’s attack as well as several smaller incidents throughout Japan in the past year. They have also said that they do not plan to stop these attacks, but that they will get larger and more deadly as time goes on. If they suspect that the government is closing in on them, they will launch a large attack that will result in the deaths of thousands of civilians. So we need you to kill them first.”

“What!?” 

“Oh, don’t be idiots.” Irina rolled her eyes as the class reeled with shock. “No one will suspect a bunch of middle schoolers of being assassins. These terrorists don’t know you exist, no one does because the government’s been keeping this whole Korosensei thing as hush-hush as possible, so they won’t be monitoring you for suspicious activity the same way they’ll be monitoring the military. It only makes sense for you kids to be the ones to eliminate them. If everything goes well, the Liberation Dogs will simply disappear and the general public will think this whole hysteria was a huge overreaction. Everyone wins!”

“We’ll be helping you the whole time.” Korosensei added more gently. “And there’s no rush. We don’t know exactly when their next attack will be, so you kids can take as much time as you need to track them down. We won’t let you move in unless we are absolutely certain you’re prepared, so don’t worry about that.”

“Alright.” Isogai looked to the rest of the class for confirmation before smiling and turning back to the teachers. “Where do we start?”

“That’s up to you,” Karasuma nodded proudly, “but the government did manage to capture one of the members’ faces before handing the case over to us.” He opened a file that was sitting on the desk and held up a photo to show the class. “He goes by the name of Maverick, but we don’t know his real identity.”

“I can run facial recognition!” Ritsu said, then frowned, “This might take a while. There’s a lot of data to sort through.”

“That’s alright!” Isogai said. “Just do your best! Like Karasuma said, there’s no rush.”

“What are you doing Itona?” Karma asked. 

Nagisa swiveled in his chair to see that Itona had pulled a variety of parts from his bag and was beginning to assemble them on his desk in the back of the room, “I’m going to try to make some trackers and maybe some cameras. If we tag that guy, he might be able to lead us back to the rest of the group.”

“Why can’t we just torture the guy?” Karma put his feet up on his desk and smirked. “Seems like it’d be pretty simple to get him to squeal.”

“But then we’d have to capture him.” Kanzaki pointed out. “How would we do that?”

“If anyone is going to be getting close to this guy,” Korosensei interrupted, “we as your teachers, would prefer that it be Nagisa. He has the most natural talent for assassination and, since this is your first real mission, that instinct will be essential in keeping him alive.”

There was a soft muttering of agreement and Nagisa felt a small swell of pride and embarrassment. It felt surprisingly good that his classmates were confident in his abilities and recognized his talents. Sure, it was a talent for killing people, but Nagisa felt that the idea still applied. 

“I found him!” Ritsu shouted. “His name is Hanta Ito and he actually lives here in the city. Wow...he’s really kind of a womanizer, isn’t he?”

Nagisa gulped as every girl in the room, plus Karma, grinned at him. He shook his head desperately, “No.”

“Ahh, come on, Nagisa!” Rio whined. “It’ll be fun!”

“I agree,” Irina said. “Make that androgyny work for you.”

“Can’t we find some way to take this guy down that  _ doesn’t _ involve me crossdressing?” Nagisa whined. 

“We won’t make you do anything that makes you uncomfortable.” Karasuma said. “But Irina is correct. In assassination, your androgeny will be a valuable asset to camouflage your appearance and enable you to get close to your targets.”

“Come on, Nagisa,” Karma grinned, “take one for the team!”

Nagisa groaned and put his face in his hands, “Fine, but I refuse to wear a skirt home.”

The class cheered.

* * *

“No, Nagisa!” Kayano scolded, “You can’t tug at the bottom like that, it makes you look uncomfortable!”

“I  _ am _ uncomfortable.” Nagisa said, tugging uselessly at the skirt’s hem to try and make it a little longer. “Why is it so short? Are they always this short, or did you just give me this one for fun?”

Rio laughed, “That’s normal and you’ll get used to it. Now let’s deal with that hair of yours…”

She reached for his hair and before he knew it, Nagisa had grabbed her arm and flipped her over his shoulder, “Oh! I am so sorry Rio, are you ok?”

“What even was that, Nagisa?” Kayano asked as she helped Rio to her feet. 

Nagisa bit his lip and stared at the ground as he decided how much to tell them, “Um, well, my mom pulls my hair when she gets angry.” He sighed, frustrated. “I don’t know why I reacted that way. I don’t throw her over my shoulder, I just freeze, but maybe that’s because I didn’t used to know how to fight, so it’s just habit to freeze with her? I don’t know, I’m really sorry, Rio.”

The girls stared at him in shock for a moment and Nagisa scuffed his feet on the ground as he waited for their reaction. Maybe he shouldn’t have said anything...

“No offense, Nagisa,” Megu said finally, “but your mom sounds like a bitch.”

“Yeah, she kinda is.” Nagisa chuckled, strangely relieved. It’s not like he was expecting the girls to side with his Mom, but it was still comforting to know that they had his back. Even if they were currently forcing him into a dress, it was because they thought it was fun and would help him be a better assassin, not because they didn’t want him to be a boy. They were his friends, they wouldn’t hurt him like she would.

“We don’t have to do your hair if you don’t want us to.” Kanzaki said. “We can just leave it in pigtails.”

Nagisa shook his head, “No, if we’re gonna do this, we may as well do it right. I should be fine as long as you ask me before you touch it. That way I’ll have some warning so I don’t freak out and try to fight you.”

Rio nodded and smiled, “Ok, then. Nagisa, would it be alright if we did your hair?”

Nagisa nodded and Rio gently sat him down and undid his pigtails. She used gentle strokes to brush out the tangles, letting some of the other girls help as well, but all of them were careful not to pull. He couldn’t help thinking that if all girls were this nice, maybe acting like one wouldn’t be the end of the world. Not all the time, of course, but maybe sometimes wouldn’t be too bad, as long as it was for missions. 

“Your hair is so pretty, Nagisa!” Kanzaki gushed. 

“And so soft!” Hara added. “You must take really good care of it.”

Nagisa shrugged, “Yeah. I’ll kinda get in trouble if I cut it or let it get too damaged.” It was really nice to actually be able to talk about it, now that his mom’s obsession with his hair was out in the open. “It makes it easier to do, though.”

“Oh.” Hara said softly, then smiled. “Don’t worry, we’re not gonna get mad no matter what your hair looks like, Nagisa.”

“Or at least we won’t get mad at  _ you.”  _ Kayano laughed. “We’ll just make fun of whichever of us styled your hair wrong!”

“What do you think girls?” Rio asked, finally dissipating the tense atmosphere. “Curls or straight?”

“Ohh!” Hinano squealed, “Let’s do curls!”

The other girls nodded in agreement and Rio set to work. After a few minutes, Nagisa started to get restless, “How long does this usually take?”

Kayano shrugged, “It depends on how long your hair is and how much practice you have curling it. Back when I had long hair, it sometimes took an hour.”

“An hour!?” Nagisa’s jaw dropped, “And there are girls who do this everyday!?”

Rio laughed, “Yep, it takes a lot of work to be beautiful!”

“And that’s not even counting makeup time.” Hazama said.

Nagisa would have shaken his head, but he was afraid Rio might accidently burn him if he moved too much, “That’s ridiculous. And all girls do this?”

Most of the girls nodded, but Hayami just shrugged, “I don’t normally bother. I put on mascara and walk out the door, that’s it.”

“It depends on the girl.” Megu acknowledged. “But Professor Bitch wants us to teach you to be high maintenance, so it’s going to take a lot of work.”

Nagisa sighed, but figured he may as well get used to it. Professor Bitch wanted him to practice this until acting like a girl was just as natural to him as acting like a boy. But still, why did it have to take so much effort?

“Perfect!” Rio said cheerfully, “Hair’s done, now onto makeup!”

Nagisa’s shoulders slumped, “Ugh…”

* * *

“So what’s up with this private lesson, Professor Bitch?” Karma asked as he sprawled on the couch in the teacher’s lounge. “I don’t think seduction will really be my forte, you know?”

Irina rolled her eyes, “This isn’t a lesson about seduction, Karma. This is a lesson on torture.”

Karma shot up and grinned, “ _ Now  _ you’ve got my attention! So what are you gonna teach me? How to cause the most pain? How to draw it out?”

“Tell me Karma,” Irina leaned forward, “what do you think the purpose of torture is?”

“Is this a trick question?” Karma raised one eyebrow. “It’s to cause pain.”

“Wrong!” Irina slapped his cheek. “While it’s true that there are situations where you’ll be asked to torture a target simply to cause them the greatest pain possible, it’s much more common to use torture as a means to get information. Do you know what the main pitfall of torture is?”

“Are you gonna slap me again if I get it wrong?” Karma asked suspiciously.

Irina grinned, a twinkle in her eye, “Probably.”

Karma sighed, “I don’t know. Probably getting caught since the target will probably scream. I bet it takes a lot of privacy to really torture someone properly.”

“True, but that’s not the main danger.” Irina said. “The problem with torture is that the target will tell you whatever they think you want to hear just to stop the pain, which means you’ll get a lot of false information and won’t know what things are true and what things your target is pulling out of their ass to save their own skin.”

Karma leaned his chin on his hands, “Hmm, I hadn’t thought of that. How do you get around that problem though? I suppose you could always just threaten to hurt them more if they lie, but then again, they’ll probably be desperate enough to try it anyway…”

“Exactly.” Irina sat down across from him and crossed her legs. “The solution isn’t pain or fear, I have no doubt you’ll be a natural at those parts, so that’s not what we’re going to focus on. We’re going to focus on  _ language _ . The trick is to word your question in such a way that your target has no way of knowing exactly  _ what _ you’re looking for.”

“Oh, I get it!” Karma grinned. “If they don’t know what I want to hear, then the only option they’re left with is telling the truth.”

“Exactly.” Irina nodded. “So let’s practice. Try to figure out if I know where Korosensei is, but without telling me that’s what you want to know. Begin.”

* * *

“No offense, Karasuma, but why are we here?” Terasaka asked. 

“Yeah,” Yoshida said, “We kinda fall into the group of  _ decent _ assassins, and that doesn’t really seem like the kinda thing we need extra training for.”

Muramatsu nodded, “What they said.”

Karasuma sighed, “You’re here because you three are what’s known as the muscle of the group. You might not be strategists, but you’re strong, so you’ll often be working as part of a time under other assassins. While it may not seem obvious, the muscle of a group can be extremely useful and even essential to any mission.”

“Oh yeah?” Terasaka asked skeptically. “And what’s that supposed to mean? We’re the cannon fodder?”

“Not necessarily.” Karasuma said, “Sometimes you’ll be the hit man, sometimes the kidnapper, but most of the time, you’re the clean up crew.”

“Huh!?”

“Gentlemen,” Karasuma’s mouth twitched into a small smile, “today I’m going to teach you how to get rid of a body.”

* * *

“Mimura?” Itona said. “Could you come over here for a minute?”

Mimura walked over to the medium sized table that had replaced Itona’s desk at the back of the room. “What’s up?”

“You’re good at video production. What kinds of lenses do you think these cameras should have? We need to keep them small and we should probably include infrared capabilities, since we don’t yet know where on the target they’ll be placed, but they still need to give us good information if we want them to actually give us any useful information.”

Mimura smiled, “Well, reconnaissance is my specialty. Show me what you’ve got so far.”

* * *

The boys all looked up as Nagisa walked in, trailed by the girls.

“Whoa! Lookin’ good Nagisa!” Maehara whistled.

Nagisa blushed, “Thanks?”

“No, Nagisa!” Rio groaned, “You’re supposed to be shy, not awkward, get it together!”

“Well you try having your classmates flirt with you all of a sudden!” Nagisa snapped. He looked back to where Karma was playing with a knife in the back row. “What’s up with you? I thought you’d be super excited since you’re always teasing me about looking like a girl.”

“Ugh!” Karma slammed his knife into his desk. “Do you know how many ways there are to ask a leading question?” 

“No?” Nagisa was a little lost, “How many?”

“Too many!” Karma said. “I know I’m smart enough to get the hang of it, but I was  _ torturing  _ Professor Bitch for a whole hour and I still don’t know where Korosensei is!”

“I’m right here, Karma!” Korosensei cheerfully blew into the room as Karma groaned and slammed his head against the table. “Nice new look Nagisa! Everyone make sure to practice referring to Nagisa using she/her pronouns today rather than the usual he/him. It’s always important to respect someone’s gender presentation and we wouldn’t want to blow her cover in front of the target by accidentally using the wrong pronouns, right?”

“Right Korosensei.” Karma chuckled as he finally snapped out of whatever funk he’d been in and Nagisa groaned. “We’ll be sure to respect  _ her _ pronouns.”

“Good! Now, homeroom will normally be used for private lessons and mission preparation like it was today, but feel free to apply our academic lessons to assassination, just like we usually do! So, class, what stood out to you from last night’s reading?”

* * *

“Okuda, what’s your favorite poison?”

Karma leaned against the lab table as he watched Okuda work. They’d been partnered up for that afternoon’s science lab and he’d decided it was best for him to just stay out of her way. She was in a league all her own when it came to chemistry, and he honestly liked just watching her work. 

“Hmm,” her face shifted into a pretty little frown as she thought about his question, “I mean the simplest answer would be arsenic, since everyone knows that one, but I’d say my personal favorite is sodium hydroxide.”

“That’s one of the ones you used to try and kill Korosensei, right?” Karma asked

Okuda nodded, “Yeah. Too bad it didn’t work…”

“Hey,” Karma put a hand on her shoulder in his best attempt at comfort, “don’t get too down on yourself. At least you didn’t throw yourself off a cliff to try to kill him.”

Okuda stopped her experiment to stare at him in shock, “You did  _ what!?” _

“Yeah, the octopus gave me extra credit for ingenuity.” Karma boasted. “Um, is the beaker supposed to be bubbling like that?”

“Shit!” Okuda turned off the bunsen burner, “Oh no! It’s ruined! We’re gonna have to start over.”

“Sorry…” Karma said awkwardly. He wasn’t really used to apologizing. “I should go. I’m just distracting you.”

“No!” She reached out and grabbed Karma’s arm as he tried to leave. “You can stay. We’re technically lab partners, after all. Just...don’t be so reckless. We’d miss you if you died.”

Karma blushed, but quickly tried to hide it with a smirk, “Oh? So you do care?”

Now it was Okuda’s turn to blush, “Can you grab the ethanol? It’s the clear one.”

Karma handed her the bottle and she poured a little of it in a clean test tube, “So, do you know how to make any tranquilizers?”

Okuda shrugged, “I’ve never made any before, but they probably aren’t too difficult to make. Why?”

“Oh, I was just thinking about the mission the teachers gave us.” Karma said. “Nagisa is great at surprise attacks but he...sorry,  _ she _ today, I guess...isn’t that strong. Not strong enough to tie up a big guy like Maverick if he’s still conscious, at least. If we plan to take him somewhere to interrogate him, we’ll need to have some way to knock him out.”

“Hmm,” Okuda added a few more chemicals to the test tube before transferring it to the burner, “by interrogate, you mean torture, right?”

“...yeah?” Karma glanced at her. “Does that, um, does that bother you?”

To his surprise, Okuda shook her head, “We’re training to be assassins, Karma. I’m starting to get used to stuff like that. That’s probably really weird to say...”

“Not at all.” Karma smiled at her, oddly relieved. He didn’t know why it was so important to him that she was cool with torture. Yeah, he  _ liked _ her, but that was mostly because her skills in chemistry and poison had so much potential for chaos and pranks. It wasn’t like he expected her to ever like him back...right?

“Anyway,” Okuda continued, “I think a neurotoxin might actually be better for what you have in mind. I’d have to do some more research, but I might be able to make one that would paralyze the target while still allowing them to feel pain.”

“Ooh!” Karma’s eyes widened. “I like the way you think! But, he’d still have to be able to talk, otherwise it’s not really torture, at least not according to Professor Bitch. We need to know what he knows.”

“Well,” Okuda thought for a minute as she removed the experiment from the heat, “it’d be tricky, but...well it might depend on where it was injected.”

Karma smiled as the mixture in the test tube changed color as it cooled, “With Nagisa on our side, that won’t be a problem. I look forward to seeing what you come up with, Okuda.”

* * *

Mimura looked at the blueprints Itona had drawn again, Ritsu off to one side ready to help them if they needed her. The three of them were having a problem because the safest place to put the surveillance device Itona was building was on or in Maverick’s phone, but that meant it would be in his pocket most of the time, so any camera attached would be practically useless. They’d already decided to add infrared ones, which were working well and could reliably track the heat of other people in the room while ignoring the body closest to the device, but they still needed more data. 

“Hmm,” Mimura looked between Itona and Ritsu, then snapped, “what if we were to use Maverick’s own camera against him?”

“What do you mean?” Itona asked.

“Well,” Mimura shrugged, “if we were to incorporate something that linked to the phone itself…”

“Oh, then I could use that to hack into the phone, and then anytime he has it out, we have a visual!” Ritsu said excitedly. 

“That could work…” Itona grabbed back the blueprints and grabbed his pencil. Mimura glanced at Ritsu and smiled. Itona had entered the design zone now, and they weren’t going to have luck getting another word out of him for the rest of homeroom.

* * *

“See, just like that, Nagisa.” Korosensei dropped two dozen phones on the desk. “Piece of cake!”

“Um, Korosensei?” Isogai said tenatively. “Maybe it would be better if we learned pickpocketing from someone who  _ couldn’t _ move at Mach 20?”

Nagisa stared blankly at the collection of phones, wondering  _ how _ exactly Korosensei expected him to replicate what he’d just done. Nagisa hadn’t even seen him  _ move,  _ much less reach into all of their pockets to steal their phones without them noticing. 

“Aww, but it’s so much fun!” Korosensei pouted. “I guess I can slow it down, just a little.”

“Um…” Kayano glanced at Nagisa, who was still practically unresponsive, “I think you’re gonna have to slow down more than just a little.”

* * *

“Breathe in…” Korosensei took an exaggerated breath, “then out…”

Karma’s nose twitched as a fly landed on his face for the third time that hour, “Why do we have to meditate again? How is this going to make us better assassins?”

Korosensei had the audacity to smile, not even opening his eyes as he responded, “Having a calm mind will help you keep an even head in any situation, even when your life is on the line, but there’s another reason as well. Can anyone tell me what that might be?”

The class contemplated the question silently for a moment, and Karma figured he probably wasn’t the only one happy to have something to  _ think _ about, rather than trying to clear his mind like an idiot. Terasaka might be used to his brain being empty, but Karma didn’t like it. 

After a long moment, Nagisa answered, following Korosensei’s example by keeping his eyes closed as he spoke, “To help us deal with the emotional strain of assassination.”

“Exactly.” Kurosensi’s face switched to show his expression for  _ correct, _ “Even the most hardened assassins are not completely immune to guilt. Some kills are going to be easy, but some targets will test the limits of your mental resolve. Just because someone is willing to pay you to see a person dead doesn’t mean that they necessarily deserve to die, and that is a knowledge that all assassins have to live with. We hold the power over life and death, children, and that is a heavy burden to bear. Meditation will help you acknowledge those emotions without giving in and letting them paralyze you. Let them come,” he inhaled and exhaled again, “then let them go, just like your breath...”

* * *

Karma reached for his phone to take a picture of Nagisa, who was presenting effeminately today, only to scowl when he realized it wasn’t in his pocket. He checked his other pocket, thinking that he might have put it there on accident, but it wasn’t there either. He was starting to get worried, so he reached for his backpack, practically emptying it out onto his desk, growing more and more frantic as he searched. Where could he have put it? He had it when he left the house this morning, he  _ knew _ he did, so where was it? He was training to be an assassin, so there was no way anyone could have....stolen...it…

He looked up to see Nagisa smiling at him and recording him  _ with his own phone. _

“Give me back my phone, Nagisa.” Karma said lowly. 

“Hmm.” Nagisa pretended to think for a moment. “No, I don’t think I will. You were just going to use it to take embarrassing pictures of me anyway.”

“Wrong answer!”

Nagisa squeaked and ran away as Karma lept to his feet to chase him, “Get back here!”

“Rio, help!” Nagisa cried. “How am I supposed to run away from Karma in a skirt?”

* * *

“Ok,” Karasuma looked at the small group that was gathered at the base of a mountain under the pretense of an evening club activity, “is everyone clear what their jobs are for this part of the mission?”

Chiba and Hayami were wearing black and carrying the cases for their sniper rifles, “Provide cover fire in case things go wrong. Keep an eye on things from above.”

Terasaka grinned and looked at Yoshida and Muramatsu, “Be as fucking annoying as possible.”

Nagisa was actually dressed as a boy for the first time that week since he wasn’t supposed to be recognized or even noticed by the target today, “Use Terasaka as a distraction so I can attach Itona’s surveillance device to his phone.”

Itona raised his hand, “Why am I even here? I already built it, and I won’t be able to use it to hack into Maverick’s phone until Nagisa attaches it.”

Karasuma sighed, “Just look it over one more time to make sure it doesn’t blow up. You’ll be keeping an eye on things with me in case anything goes wrong, just like the snipers. Alright kids, if you’re sure you’re all ready, then let’s head out.”

* * *

Nagisa sipped at the drink he’d gotten as he kept an eye on the street. According to the data Ritsu had gathered, Maverick walked along this street for approximately a block every Friday night, which meant it was the perfect time to intercept him without drawing attention to themselves. Chiba and Hayami were posted in buildings on either side on the street and Terasaka’s group was waiting down a side street. Nagisa had no idea where Karasuma and Itona were, but he knew they couldn’t be far. 

He stuck his hand in his pocket and ran his fingers along the tiny surveillance device that was smaller than most coins. He’d practiced attaching it to every single one of his classmate’s phones over the past few days, so he knew he could slip the disk inside Maverick’s phone with no problem, placing it right underneath the battery. The hard part wouldn’t be getting the phone or attaching the disk, but putting the phone back in Maverick’s pocket without getting caught. 

Finally, he spotted his target walk around the corner. His hulking form was more than enough to make most people rush to get out of his way, but the way that his shoulders hunched forward practically screamed,  _ don’t bother me. _ Too bad that’s exactly what they were about to do.

“Target spotted.” Hayami whispered through the comms. “Team Terasaka, that’s your cue.”

“You idiot!” Terasaka started yelling and chasing after Muramatsu as Nagisa stood to throw his cup away. “You’re gonna die, nerd!”

Right on cue, Muramatsu slammed into Maverick and fell to the floor right as Nagisa passed by and palmed his phone. Only their classmates would know Muramatsu’s fear was fake as he scrambled backwards. For all intents and purposes, he appeared to be caught between a rock and a hard place with Maverick in front of him while Terasaka and Yoshida advanced from behind. 

“Sorry about him sir,” Terasaka said, cracking his knuckles, “We’ll make sure he doesn’t bother you anymore.”

Nagisa had finished placing the disk by this point, but now he needed to wait for the perfect moment to replace the phone. He looked down at his own phone, pretending to read a text so it’d look more realistic for him to turn around and go back the way he’d come. People would just assume he’d gotten lost or a meeting location had changed, rather than him needing to pass by the target again. 

“Don’t worry about it.” Maverick told Terasaka pleasantly. He seemed about to walk away and Nagisa was about to freak out, thinking he’d missed his chance, when Maverick stopped. “Actually kid, take my card. The company I work for is always looking for people like you.”

Terasaka stared at the card in shock, then reached forward to take it. This was Nagisa’s chance. He strode forward and Muramatsu caught his eye before scrambling so that he knocked into Maverick’s legs right as Nagisa put the phone back in his pocket and Terasaka took the card. 

“You little punk!” Yosida yelled. “Don’t you run away from us!”

Nagisa walked calmly down the street as Terasaka and Yoshida ran after Muramatsu and Maverick went on his way none the wiser.

“Good work kids.” Karasuma said over the comms. “Extra credit for flawless execution.”

* * *

“Are these really necessary?” Nagisa tried to take a step forward, only to wobble as his balance was thrown off by the high heels. They were only about three inches tall, but they seemed even taller since it was his first time walking in them. Was he secretly afraid of heights or something?

“As much as I’m sure you hate them Nagisa, learning to fight in heels is an essential skill.” Karasuma said. “You won’t always be able to stop and change shoes in the middle of a mission.”

“Suck it up Nagisa,” Kayano said, “Or did you forget we’re  _ all _ in heels for P.E. this week?”

“Not me, suckers!” Karma laughed.

Nagisa glared at him for a moment, then took off one of his shoes and launched it at Karma’s head.

Hey!” Karma’s eyes widened and he dodged, only to be hit with the second shoe the moment he straightened up again. Nagisa smiled and stuck his tongue out at him as Karma rubbed his head and glared at him.

“That  _ is _ a valid use for them.” Korosensei said cheerfully. “Extra points for creativity, Nagisa!”

“That reminds me!” Irina piped up. “I should teach you all how to use heels as improvised weapons! Those techniques work better with stilettos, though, so we’ll have to wait until you master the basics so you don’t break an ankle.”

The girls groaned.

* * *

“Hey Ritsu,” Fuwa sat down backwards on the desk in front of Ritsu’s consol, “I couldn’t help but notice you changed your background to a rainstorm. Is Everything alright?”

“What? Oh...” Ritsu frowned and the rain behind her started coming down a little harder, a boom of thunder rumbling from her speakers, “It’s just that I have all the data, especially since Itona synced his surveillance disk with my systems, but I’m not sure how to put it all together. I’m good at finding info and making decisions, but my AI wasn’t designed to solve mysteries.”

“Maybe I can help?” Fuwa smiled encouragingly. “You know how many detective mangas I read. I’ve picked up a few things.”

“Really?” The clouds in Ritsu’s background parted slightly and a ray of sunlight started shining through. “Thank you so much!”

* * *

“Korosensei?” Terasaka asked. “When we planted the tracker on Maverick, he tried to recruit me. Maybe it would be a good idea if I joined, you know, like a spy. We could probably find out a lot more information that way.

“Hmm,” Korosensei said, “yes, Karasuma did tell me about that.”

“If anyone is going to be infiltrating the Liberation Dogs, it should be  _ me _ !” Kayano said. “ _ I’m _ the one with experience in acting and infiltration!”

“No!” It wasn’t often that Korosensei sounded so stern, and the class went dead silent. “I’m sorry students, but no one will be infiltrating as part of this mission. Terasaka, while an excellent opportunity has been presented, infiltration is not one of your strengths. And Kayano, while you  _ do _ have some experience in infiltration, you were only focused on one target rather than being surrounded by enemies as you would be in this situation. As your teacher, it is my sworn duty to protect you and none of you are ready to go on a full infiltration mission quite yet. Perhaps you can revisit the idea in a few years once you’ve honed your skills a little more, but until then, I don't want to hear anymore about it. Do you all understand?”

“Yes Korosensei.” Terasaka muttered.

“Kayano?”

Kayano sighed, “Yes sir, but I  _ do _ want to learn more about infiltration. I don’t want to be held back from something useful and fun like that just because you’re trying to protect me or something.”

“Perfect! I’ll set up some lessons for you with Irina.” Korosensei turned to the rest of the class. “Remember class, just because you’re not ready to do something right now doesn’t mean you can’t ever learn to do it. There is a time and a place for everything and your skills will serve you well, but only if you hone them. The possibilities are always endless!”

* * *

Maehara and Okajima started laughing as soon as Nagisa walked in the door, “First day doing your own makeup, huh Nagisa?”

“Yeah?” Nagisa said slowly, “how did you know that?”

The girls had finally decided he was ready to start doing his own beauty routine, so he’d shown up early and used the make-up they kept for him in the bathrooms. Was that not what he was supposed to do? He’d been sure to do all the steps just like they’d taught him, and while it didn’t look  _ quite _ as good as when the girls did it, he thought he’d done ok. Apparently not, though, because the boys were all laughing at him and the girls looked both amused and disappointed.

“Oh, Nagisa, sweetie!” Rio ran at him and dragged him from the room. “You have to blend!”

Nagisa groaned in frustration, “I thought I already did that!”

* * *

Karma knocked on the door to the science room a few minutes before homeroom, “Hey Okuda? You in here? Korosensei sent me to check on you.”

His eyes widened as he saw the lab. There were bottles of chemicals everywhere and while he was sure that there was some sort of organizational system, he couldn’t tell what the hell it was supposed to be. Okuda herself was looking worse for wear as well, strands of hair falling out of her braid and framing her face, highlighting the dark bags under her eyes that matched the wrinkles on her uniform.

“Shit!” Okuda grabbed a rag to clean up the chemical that had overflowed from the test tube she was working with and Karma noticed she was practically buzzing with manic focus. He glanced down at the trash can by the door and...wow, that was a lot of energy drinks.

“Okuda, have you been here all night?”

“I’m so  _ close _ , Karma, I can feel it! I just...just a little longer...a few more experiments, and then I’ll be able to…”

“Ok, no.” Karma had to put his foot down. “Okuda, you need sleep. Remember what the teachers say? There’s no point in attacking someone with a dull knife.”

“But…!” Okuda started to plead, but Karma didn’t let her finish. There was no way he was letting her win this one. 

“Come on,” he grabbed a pair of gloves, “I’ll help you clean up the lab, and then you can sleep through homeroom.”

Okuda probably didn’t realize just how pretty her pout was, but Karma ignored that and just kept staring her down until she caved, “Fine. Would you grab that box from that shelf over there? It’s where most of the bottles go.”

They didn’t talk much while they cleaned. Karma figured Okuda probably wasn’t in the mood for that, considering she was currently running on pure caffeine, so he just enjoyed the companionable silence. By the time they finished, she was starting to slow down and he noticed she was having trouble keeping her eyes open. Good, he’d been worried it’d take longer for her to crash, but it looked like she’d be able to go right to sleep. 

“Come on Okuda, the couch in the teacher’s lounge is awesome. It’s so comfortable and if we’re lucky, there might be something in there we can use to annoy Korosensei.”

“Yeah, ok..” She stumbled into him as she started falling asleep on her feet, “Oh, sorry Karma…”

Karma frowned. It wasn’t that far to the teacher’s lounge, but Okuda was obviously crashing quickly now that the energy drinks were finally out of her system. She took a few more steps on her own, but started swaying again almost immediately and Karma had to wrap his arm around her waist to keep her from falling. He looked down at her and swallowed. There was nothing for it, he’d have to carry her. He bent and swept her up in a bridal carry, blushing slightly as her arms wrapped around his neck on instinct. 

“Karma?” she muttered softly, “What…?”

“Don’t worry about it, Okuda,” he smiled down at her, “we can’t have you stumbling around the school like you’re drunk. Imagine what Korosensei would say!”

Okuda giggled and rested her head against his chest as he finally started walking and Karma tried to stay calm as he carried her to the faculty lounge. What was up with him? She was just a girl! He was a loner, she shouldn’t be affecting him this much!

He pushed the door to the teacher’s lounge open with his foot and set Okuda down gently on the couch. There had to be a blanket around here somewhere, right? Oh yeah, he’d seen one in the closet the last time he’d been rifling through stuff in here. He’d ignored it then, mostly focusing on the cans of silly string he’d used to booby-trap the door to the classroom so Professor Bitch got covered in it as soon as she walked in, but it should still be there.

“Karma?”

He finally found the blanket and ran to the couch as soon as he heard her voice, “Yeah Okuda, I’m here.”

She fluttered her eyes open briefly before closing them again, “Thank you. You’re a really great guy…”

Her breathing slowed as she fell asleep and Karma smiled slightly as he covered her with the blanket, then tucked a peice of hair behind her ear because it had fallen in her face when he’d been carrying her. He’d never realized how cute she looked when she was asleep. Her brain was still obviously his favorite part of her, but...he forced himself to leave before he got the urge to kiss her or something idiotic like that. 

She obviously didn’t like him that way.

* * *

Itona, Mimura, and Fuwa all gathered around Ritsu’s console looking at the data they’d managed to gather from the device Nagisa had planted in Maverick’s phone. 

“Have you guys noticed that he only really visits one location?” Fuwa pointed at the map that Ritsu was displaying. “When he’s at  _ work  _ it’s just that one place, but an organization like the Liberation Dogs most likely has multiple bases. Did we ever figure out where in the organization Maverick fits? He’s not entrance level, is he?”

“From what I can tell,” Ritsu said, “he’s kind of like a middle manager. It’s likely he knows about most of the other bases, but doesn’t work with them himself.”

“Well, at least Karma will be happy.” Itona said blandly. “It looks like he gets to torture someone after all.”

* * *

“Good work, girls!” Irina called out. “Be careful of the landings!”

The boys watched in shock as the girls and Nagisa did a parkour course in stilettos. They’d been working for weeks to get to that point, getting higher and thinner heels every week until they’d mastered them all and Irina had finally deemed them ready to do one of the class’s most difficult runs. If they succeeded, they could choose what shoes they wanted to wear to PE for the rest of the year. 

“Never let it be said that women are less skilled than their male counterparts.” Korosensei giggled, “Just look at that mobility!”

Okajima let his jaw hang open as he watched the girls run and jump flawlessly, navigating every obstacle while somehow avoiding breaking their ankles, “Girls are crazy, dude.”

* * *

Karma felt a little  _ too _ much like Nagisa at that moment as he scribbled in the tiny notebook Professor Bitch had given him. He was currently writing down potential interrogation questions as he kept Okuda company to make sure she didn’t overwork herself again. Professor Bitch said he was getting a lot better at phrasing things correctly, but he’d just never realized how nuanced the art of torture was. There was definitely still the whole causing physical pain aspect of it, which was good, but the more he learned about the psychological aspects of the whole process the more he enjoyed it. That being said, if he managed to impress Professor Bitch with this set of questions, she had promised to transfer his private lessons to Karasuma so that he could learn more about torture methods and causing the right amounts of physical pain to get the desired results. 

“Wait...it worked!” Okuda squealed. 

Karma looked up from his notes to see her staring at her experiment in delighted shock. He stood up and went to stand next to her as she started jumping up and down in excitement.

“I finally did it! I…” She turned to him with a huge smile on her face and before he even knew what was happening, she was kissing him. It lasted less than a second and from the way Okuda went right back to celebrating, Karma guessed that she hadn’t actually  _ meant _ to do it, but the fact that she  _ had… _ He couldn’t stop himself from staring at her in shock and after a moment, her smile melted as she realized what she’d just done. 

“Karma, I am so sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!” Okuda rambled nervously, “I mean, I know you probably don’t like me like that, but I was just so caught up in the moment and that was probably entirely inappropriate and now everything’s gonna be awkward and you’ll hate me and…”

He cut her off by leaning down and kissing her again, half on impulse and half to show her that she had no reason to worry. He wrapped his arms around her and practically melted in relief when she relaxed in his arms. After a few seconds, Karma decided to just take the bull by the horns and he placed one hand at the nape of her neck and deepened the kiss, trying to communicate how much she meant to him without words, since everything he said tended to sound sarcastic and he wasn’t about to take that chance. He half-expected Okuda to pull away, but she didn’t.

Huh, maybe she did like him that way after all. 

* * *

The mood was both excited and somber when Nagisa showed up to homeroom. They’d finalized the assassination plan just yesterday and were planning on putting it into action next week. It just seemed more...real somehow. Yeah, they’d all made the decision to become professional assassins, but now that they had real,  _ human _ targets and a plan of action to actually kill them, Nagisa couldn’t help wondering if it was the right one. He guessed that it was finally starting to sink in what exactly they’d signed up for. 

“Good morning class.” Even Korosensei was affected by the weird mood of the morning, since he was much more subdued than usual. “To begin, I just want to let you know how proud I am of all of you. My little babies are growing up and destroying terrorist organizations!”

“Korosensei!!!”

“It’s not just him, class.” Kurasama said with a rare smile. “We are  _ all  _ proud of you. You’ve come a long way in a short amount of time and have each worked hard to master the basics and become skilled assassins. All that being said, we’d still like to review the plan you’ve all made for this mission, seeing as this is your first assassination with targets other than Korosensei. Isogai, can you start us off?”

Isogai nodded, “Our reconnaissance team has uncovered one of the bases, but we believe there are probably more. We know that Maverick is a womanizer, so we’re going to use Nagisa, dressed femininely, as bait so we can capture him.”

Karma leaned back with his feet on the desk as he took over, “Me and Nagisa, are going to go on a  _ date. _ ” He rolled his eyes as he used finger quotes, “But that’s just a ruse. I get to act like an ass so Maverick can come in as the white knight and save the damsel in distress, isn’t that right, Nagisa?”

“I'm not a damsel in distress!” Nagisa glared at him, but sighed and took over, “But, yes. It’ll create an opening that Maverick won’t be able to resist and he’ll try to get me alone. There’s an alley near where we’ll be picking him up, so I’ll offer to take him there, claiming to be familiar with the area. I’ll use a sedative to knock him out and give the signal to Yoshida.”

“I’ll be waiting nearby with a van,” Yoshida said, “so when Nagisa gives the signal, I’ll be ready. We’ll take Maverick to the warehouse we picked out, which should be isolated enough that no one should be able to hear what we do, even if things get...loud.”

“And they  _ will _ get loud.” Karma grinned. “As soon as the target is with Nagisa, I’ll make my own way to the warehouse and get everything set up. When Yosida arrives with the lovebirds, we’ll tie Maverick up and wake him up.”

“Not quite yet.” Okuda interrupted. “You should inject him with the neurotoxin I designed before you wake him up. That way, there won’t be any risk of missing the correct injection spot.”

“It’ll also establish a clear balance of power.” Korosensei added. “Imagine waking up and not being able to move your limbs! That emotional reaction will make the following torture much more effective.”

“Right.” Karma nodded. “Okuda’s neurotoxin will slightly enhance Maverick’s sensitivity to pain while paralyzing him from the neck down. That’s then the fun part starts!”

“I really don’t know how you enjoy that so much.” Kayano grimaced in disgust. “It just seems so  _ messy. _ ”

Karma just gave a grin that showed just a peek of his bloodlust, “According to the data Ritsu and Itona have gathered, Maverick is high enough in the organization that he should know the locations of the other bases they have, as well as the names of all of the leaders. Once we have all the information we need, I’ll finish him off and contact the rest of the class.”

“We’ll need to hit all of the bases simultaneously to have the greatest chance of success.” Ritsu said. “We’ll divide the class into teams depending on how many bases Karma discovers. Hopefully, we’ll be able to send around five to each location.”

“I’m working on building some modified emp devices.” Itona said. “I’ll send one with each group so that when Ritsu gives the signal, you can press the button and the device will fry the lights and their phones so they can’t see or call for help. From there, it should be fairly easy to take them out.”

“There’s a chance that there might be leaders of the movement that are not physically present at the bases.” Karasuma reminded them. 

“That’s why Ritsu will track them down using the names Karma got from Maverick.” Isogai said. “Then Nagisa, Chiba, and Hayami will take them out.”

“And after?” Irina asked. 

“We’ll take pictures of our targets as proof of death so we can send them to the government who hired us.” Rio said. 

“And then we get rid of the bodies before anyone knows they’re dead.” Tersaka finished. 

The teachers stared at them silently and Nagisa glanced at his classmates nervously. He was almost certain that they hadn’t missed any part of the plan, but maybe they were still missing something? 

After a long minute, Korosensei grinned, “Correct! Oh! I can’t believe you’re all grown up and becoming real assassins!” He grabbed a tissue and blew his nose. “I’m so proud!”

“Your planning will undoubtedly help the mission run smoothly.” Karasuma said. “But there are some things about your first kill that you won’t be able to plan for.”

A feeling of tension fell over the class and Nagisa wondered what Karasuma was talking about. They’d been training as assassins for months and they’d been planning this mission for weeks. They’d dotted all their t’s and crossed all their i’s, so what else was there?

Irina sat on the desk at the front of the room and looked at them seriously, “An assassin’s first kill is always the hardest, no matter who it is or how much they’ve trained for it. I was younger than you all when I took my first life, and I had already been training for years. The fact is that when you’re holding a real knife and have someone’s life in your hands for the first time, there is going to be a moment where you freeze.”

“Freeze?” Rio asked.

“A moment of truth, one could say.” Korosensei said. “A single moment where you have to decide if you’re really ready to take a life. If you can get past that moment, you’ll be a real assassin, but if you can’t, then you may very well miss your best opportunity or maybe even your life.”

Nagisa gulped. That was why Takaoka had been so sure he would win the first time they fought. He was expecting Nagisa to freeze when he held a real knife for the first time, but he hadn’t. But then again, he hadn’t been intending to actually  _ use _ it, in fact, he’d ended up using the wrong side on accident, which worked out for him in the end, but  _ was _ kind of embarrassing. What would happen if he cornered Maverick and froze right at the moment that he was supposed to abduct him. If he froze for too long,  _ he _ would become the target. 

“So what are we supposed to do?” Terasaka asked incredulously. “If we’re gonna freeze, how are we gonna stay alive?”

“Conviction.” Korosensei said. “When that moment of truth comes, if your conviction is lacking, the roles will be reversed and you will find yourself on the wrong side of an assassination. If you are secure in your roles and desires, however, that moment will only reaffirm your conviction and it will be easy for you to complete your mission. Everyone, please close your eyes.”

Nagisa closed his eyes and took a deep breath, a familiar reflex from their meditation practices. There was a long moment while Korosensei allowed everyone to follow his instructions and calm their breathing before he spoke again. 

“I want each of you to think about your reasons for becoming an assassin.”

Nagisa thought back to the moment he knew he wanted to do this, alone in his room after a typically disastrous dinner with Mom. At that moment, he’d realized that becoming an assassin would give him a degree of freedom that he’d never had before. He would be able to make his own decisions about his life, about which jobs he wanted to take and who he wanted to kill and no one would be nagging at him constantly to mould him into who they thought he should be. 

“Think about all the reasons you want to kill.”

He wanted to kill because it was something  _ he _ was good at, not something that his mom had chosen for him. The fact that Korosensei and his classmates believed in him didn’t hurt either. Everytime they did an exercise in PE and he got the top score, he got such a huge sense of accomplishment, and he loved it. He wondered if neutralizing a real target would feel even better, or if any of his classmates felt the same way?

“Each of your reasons for taking this path are unique.” Korosensei continued. “And there are no wrong answers as long as your reasons are enough for you, but I do want each of you to genuinely ask yourself if your conviction is enough to get you past that moment of truth. There is no shame in sitting out this mission if you don’t feel like you’re ready, or even choosing another career altogether. We and your other classmates won’t judge you if you decide that this isn’t for you, okay?”

Nagisa found himself nodding, but oddly enough, he didn’t feel tempted at all to drop out of the mission. He knew that he didn’t have to do this, but he wanted to. Assassination was his way of taking control of his life, and that was more than enough for him. As strange as it sounded, he was finally happy. 

“Alright, you kids can open your eyes now.” Karasuma said. “Like Korosensei said, there’s no shame if you want out, just come and talk to one of us after class and let us know.”

“Whoo, I’m glad that’s over!” Korosensei wiped his brow. “The tension was getting to be too much. You could cut it with a knife!”

“Shut up, octopus, you’re the one who wanted to make a big deal out of this talk.” Irina griped. 

“I didn’t know it was gonna be so intense!’ Korosensei defended. “My heart can’t handle it!”

* * *

Everything was ready. Everyone’s parents had been informed of an overnight field trip, everyone’s weapons had been sharpened and loaded, every student had been given a comm link that connected them to Ritsu, Itona, and the teachers, and the room was buzzing with nervous energy. The students themselves were gathered in the classroom, either lingering in small groups making small talk or checking their weapons one last time before everything started. 

Nagisa was part of the latter group. He had several knives hidden in his socks and under his shirt and he of course had several syringes filled with sedative and Okuda’s neurotoxin. He should only need one of each, but any good assassin knew to carry a second knife in case the first one failed. He took a breath to steady himself. Most of their plan hinged on his abilities as an assassin and even though Nagisa knew he was skilled, he couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if he let everyone down. 

What if, after everything, he wasn’t good enough? What if assassination ended up being like everything else in his life and he failed? What would his classmates think? Would they hate him just like Mom did? What about Korosensei? Would he be disappointed?

“Nagisa?” Almost on cue, Korosensei peeked his head into the room. “May I speak to you out in the hall?”

The meaningless conversations stuttered to a stop as Nagisa nodded and stood to leave. Two dozen pairs of eyes followed him as he followed Korosensei out of the room and he couldn’t help dragging his feet. This was it. Korosensei already knew he would fail and he was going to pull him from the mission. 

He was pulled from his thoughts when Korosensei placed a tentacle on his shoulder, “You seem rather tense, Nagisa. Would you like to tell me what’s on your mind?”

Nagisa gasped softly in shock, “You could tell? I thought I was hiding it pretty well.”

“You did! A normal target wouldn’t have noticed that anything was off at all.” Korosensei smiled gently. “But in case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a normal person.”

Nagisa chuckled, “Yeah, I guess that’s true…” he hesitated for a moment before taking a deep breath, “I can’t help but wonder if I’m really up to this.”

“I was thinking it was something like that.” Korosensei nodded thoughtfully. “There is quite a bit of pressure on you to make sure everything goes well. But there isn’t any shame in admitting that you’re nervous.”

Nagisa looked up at him, “There isn’t?”

“None at all.” Korosensei patted his shoulder, “In life, as in assassination, there will always be times when the pressure is high and you wonder if you’ll be able to pull though when everything is on the line. When that happens, it’s only natural to feel a little worried, but a true assassin can admit his fear without letting it hold him back.”

“But what if I fail?” Nagisa asked. “What if I let everyone down?”

“You are a natural assassin Nagisa.” Korosensei reminded him. “Of all the students in this class, you are the only one with the natural instincts to take advantage of a target’s every weakness. I know that what you had to go through to gain those instincts wasn’t pleasant, but you have decided to take advantage of them and I couldn’t be prouder. I know that when push comes to shove later today, you not only won’t disappoint your classmates, but you’ll thrive off your first kill. So how about you let me believe in you until you’re ready to believe in yourself?”

Nagisa smiled and nodded, “Yes, Korosensei!”

“Perfect!’ Korosensei clapped his tentacles together. “Then how about we rejoin your classmates? It’s almost time to be on our way, after all!”

They made their way back into the classroom and Nagisa went to his seat as Korosensei went to stand by Karasuma and Irina at the front of the room, “Good afternoon, class! Is everyone excited?”

There was a hesitant murmur of assent and Nagisa let out a breath of relief he hadn’t even known he’d been holding. At least he wasn’t the only one that was nervous. Even Karma seemed a little less like his usual cocky self. 

“It’s understandable that you are all nervous for your first real mission.” Karasuma said. “But know that we, as your teachers, believe in your capabilities.”

“You’ve trained for this.” Irina said. “Now it’s time to trust in that training. Soon enough, this will all be over and the next time you won’t be so nervous.”

Korosensei blew his nose, “I’m so proud of you all!”

“Alright.” Karasuma nodded. “Nagisa, Karma, you’re up first, so come with me. Everyone else, you still have a little time to get into position, but just make sure you are in constant communication with Ritsu so you stay up to date on where we are in the plan. Good luck.”

Karma and Nagisa were silent as they followed Karasuma to the car to travel to the city. Nagisa had already done his makeup and was dressed in a short skirt and tight shirt with knee high socks that were thick enough to hide his knives. It was an outfit designed to be tempting to their target and Nagisa knew that, but it didn’t mean he had to like it. 

Karma, however, had apparently decided that the best way to deal with his nerves was to tease him, “Looking good, Nagisa. You were just made to be a piece of arm candy, weren’t you?”

Nagisa glared at him, “Isn’t it a little too early to be picking a fight, Karma? You’re supposed to wait until the target is in view.”

“What? I can’t give my best friend a compliment?” Karma said innocently. 

“With compliments like that, it’s a wonder you have a best friend at all.” Nagisa shot back. 

They continued bantering for the rest of the drive and Nagisa caught Karasuma smiling at them in the rearview mirror a few times, but everytime, it passed so quickly that he could have just been imagining it. Before long, they’d reached the street where they knew the target would be. They still had about twenty minutes until Maverick arrived, but that was intentional. They wanted it to seem like they were there by chance and simply  _ happened _ to run into their target. If all went well, Maverick wouldn’t realize that they were pulling the strings until it was too late. 

They said goodbye to Karasuma, who just nodded in farewell, then walked down the street to the restaurant they’d picked out for the mission. They requested to be seated in the outside seating area in front so they had a good view of the street and ordered their drinks, then looked through the menu while keeping an eye out for their target. 

“So...you doing alright?” Karma asked. 

“Yeah.” Nagisa said, not looking at him, “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“Well...just... _ everything,  _ you know?”

“I already talked about it with Korosensei, and he gives pretty good pep-talks, so I’m not nearly as nervous as I was a few hours ago.” Nagisa shrugged. “What about you? I mean, I know you’ve been looking forward to your part in the plan and everything, but there’s probably gonna be a difference between imagining it and actually  _ doing _ it.”

“Yeah,” Karma chuckled, “Seriously, when me met, could you have ever imagined that  _ this _ is where we’d end up?”

“You?” Nagisa grinned. “Definitely. Me? Not so much.”

Karma laughed, “Yeah. You  _ were _ always too much of a goodie two shoes. I think even the teachers were surprised by your  _ hidden talents.” _

Nagisa rolled his eyes, “Hardy-har-har. You’re just jealous because no one was surprised when you chose to have a career in tortu…” he felt a presence coming closer and quickly changed his sentence to something less suspicious, “no one was surprised by how you turned out.”

Karma raised an eyebrow in question, but Nagisa simply turned to their waiter, who was now only a few steps away. When he noticed them looking at him, he scurried to the table, “Sorry about the wait. Have you decided what you want?”

“I’ll take the ribs.” Karma smirked. “A pretty  _ masculine _ meal.”

Nagisa sent him a quick glare before glancing at the menu again, “I think I’ll have the apple cobb salad.”

He would have probably preferred ribs too, but for their plan to work, he needed to be seen as delicate, so a salad was perfect. It wasn’t like they’d have a lot of time to eat anyway, if everything went as planned. 

Their food came pretty quickly after that and Nagisa picked at his salad for a few minutes while they waited. Karma was practically destroying the ribs on his plate, not nothing to worry about things like cleanliness, since he was supposed to be acting the part of an inconsiderate jerk anyway.

“Target has been spotted.” Hayami spoke over the comms. They’d decided that she’d monitor this part of the mission from above, ready to snipe the target if anything went wrong. “He’s about to turn the corner.”

Nagisa glanced up and, sure enough, Maverick walked around the corner and started heading their way. He hadn’t spotted them yet, but that wouldn’t last long. It was time to finish setting their trap. 

“Hey Karma,” Nagisa said, “may I have one of your fries?”

Karma smirked and crossed his arms, “Maybe if you didn’t steal my food so often, you wouldn’t be so…”

“So what?” Nagisa raised his voice slightly, catching Maverick’s attention. “If you have something to say, just come right out and say it.”

“I’m not trying to say anything.” Karma said, practically oozing the air of a self-confident douchebag. “But maybe if you were better at actually keeping to your diet, you wouldn’t be such a fatty. What, is your salad not good enough for you or something?”

“I can’t believe you!” Nagisa blinked, knowing that he looked like he was about to cry from anger and hurt. “Why do you always do this?”

“Hey, I’m just telling the truth, sweetheart.” Karma leaned back, apparently completely unbothered by his own rudeness. “You can’t get mad at me just because  _ you _ haven’t put in the work to look good for me.”

Karma’s smirk got wider as Maverick swerved off course and headed toward their table. Nagisa felt his own lips twitch, but quickly schooled his expression back into one that made him look like he was holding back tears. The target was taking the bait. 

“Hey pretty girl,” Maverick glared at Karma as he walked up to their table, this jerk giving you a hard time?”

“Nah, we’re just having a little joke.” Karma stared Maverick down. “Isn’t that right, sweetheart?”

“I-it’s ok.” Nagisa said quietly, “You d-don’t have to w-worry about me, sir.”

“You heard the lady.” Karma smirked. “Now if you’ll just go on your merry little way, we can get back to our date. I mean, it is my girlfriend’s birthday, so I’d  _ hate _ for a busybody like you to ruin it.”

Maverick stood up to his full height and glowered down at him, “This is the way you treat your girlfriend on her birthday? You don’t deserve her.” He then turned to Nagisa and gave a smile that was probably supposed to be charming, “How about you leave this boy behind, gorgeous, and I show you how a real man treats a lady?”

Karma jumped to his feet, knocking his chair to the floor, “Are you trying to steal my girlfriend, you punk?”

“Oh, I don’t have to try.” Maverick laughed. “I’m pretty sure she knows which one of us is superior.”

“Why you little…” Karma made to punch him, but Nagisa jumped up and held him back. 

“Karma, please don’t!” he put on an expression that was a mixture of fear and embarrassment, “People are starting to stare.”

Karma glanced around and, sure enough, they’d attracted quite the audience. He roughly pulled his arm out of Nagisa’s grip, “Fine. If this guy is so  _ superior _ , why don’t you just go with him?”

“Karma…” Nagisa looked between the two men in indecision.

“Come on, gorgeous,” Maverick grinned, “let’s leave this loser.”

Nagisa hesitated another moment, milking the situation to make himself look weak and defenceless. Maverick was looking confident, just like they wanted. 

Karma scoffed, “Go ahead. I mean, it’s only fitting for a fatty like you to end up with his ugly mug. You were just dragging me down.”

Karma stubbled back as Maverick punched him in the nose and Nagisa screamed. The waiter looked like he wanted to interfere, if only to tell them all to leave, but with the amount of bloodlust both men were projecting, he was too scared to do anything. 

Karma gripped his nose, then glared at Maverick and grabbed his wallet, “Fine. Fuck you too.” He slammed enough cash to cover the meal on the table. “I hope you’re happy, sweetheart, because we’re over!”

He stalked away, leaving Nagisa and the other guests at the restaurant to stare after him in shock. Maverick was looking very self satisfied as he placed a hand on the small of Nagisa’s back and led him away. 

“Thank you.” Nagisa sniffled softly. “He...he’s always been like that, I just...I don’t even know why I fell for him in the first place, but he was always so  _ strong _ and I...I didn’t know what would happen if I broke it off, you know?”

“Hey,” Maverick cupped his face and used his thumb to wipe away at his cheek, obviously not realizing that none of the fake tears had actually fallen, “that loser never deserved you, ok? You’re gorgeous and you deserve to be treated like it.”

“Thank you.” Nagisa said. “You two really  _ are _ so different. I can’t believe I ever dated that jerk!”

Maverick smiled and started walking again, letting his hand a few inches lower on Nagia’s back than he had before. Nagisa ignored the way it made his skin crawl as he mentally reminded himself of Professor Bitch’s seduction lessons. He was in control here. Maverick was simply his prey, a fish dancing on the line from the bait he’d set, still too stupid to realize that he’d just signed his own death warrant. 

“Now, seeing as your boyfriend ruined your dinner,” Maverick let his hand wander a little lower as he smirked suggestively, “how about we find something else to satisfy you, gorgeous?”

Nagisa blushed and looked away shyly, “Um, I think I’d really like that, but I, um, I don’t even know your name. We’re strangers.”

Maverick laughed, “I guess so. Everyone just calls me Maverick. What about you?”

“N-nagisa.”

“A unique name for a unique girl, I like it.” Maverick grinned. “There, now we’re not strangers anymore. So what do you say? Want me to show you a good time?”

Nagisa gasped slightly and nodded, “D-do you wanna go someplace more private? I live around here, so I know a lot of, um, good spots.”

Maverick smirked, “Lead the way, gorgeous. Just don’t choose one too far, a man has his needs and I can get,” He leaned down to whisper in his ear,  _ “impatient.” _

Nagisa shivered and started to walk to the alley they’d chosen. There weren’t any cameras and the buildings on either side were vacant, so no one was going to see them except for maybe some homeless people who wouldn’t care. They’d decided that it needed to be close to the restaurant to prevent Nagisa from losing control of the situation. He knew that he could easily take control back if anything happened, but it’d just be easiest if things went according to the plan. 

Maverick laughed as he was pulled into the alley, “Wow, I didn’t take you as this kinda girl, gorgeous, but I’m down.”

They were halfway down the alley when Nagisa found his back pushed against the wall as Maverick started to kiss his neck. He squirmed slightly to hide the way his hand reached for one of the tranquilizer syringes in his pocket. He was about to grab it when Maverick grabbed both of his wrists and brought them above his head, pinning them to the wall. 

“There you go, gorgeous, now don’t move around too much.” Maverick purred. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure it’s good for you too.”

Nagisa’s mind raced. Of course the guy would be into holding people down. Would he be able to use the tranquilizers without his hands? No, that’d be unnecessarily complicated and would undoubtedly draw too much suspicion. So, he needed to get the use of his hands back…

“Do you need me to take him out?” Hayami asked over the comms. 

Nagisa shook his head almost imperceptibly. He wasn’t ready to give up yet, and he knew that everyone was relying on him to do this right. He was a natural born assassin, he could do this. He just needed to make himself an opening. When Maverick went to kiss him on the mouth, Nagisa let him push his tongue into his mouth. 

Then he bit.

As expected, Maverick instinctively let go, his hands going to his now bleeding mouth, “You fucking bitch! I’ll kill you for that.”

Nagisa wiped his mouth and grabbed the correct syringe, looking distinctly unimpressed, “Interesting word,  _ kill. _ ” In the blink of an eye, he’d lunged and jabbed the syringe into Maverick’s neck. “I’d advise against using it unless you’re willing to put your own life on the line.”

Maverick went to grab him, but Nagisa was used to fighting Korosensei and Karasuma, so he side-stepped him easily. The tranquilizer had already started to kick in, so rather than recovering easily from his target moving as he usually would, Maverick tripped over his own feet and went crashing to the ground, unable to stop his own momentum.

“The target is down and ready for pickup.” Nagisa said.

“You…” Maverick glared up at him. “You planned this…”

“Of course. You really thought any girl would go with you that easily? I was never your  _ prey, _ Maverick.” Nagisa couldn’t help channeling his inner Karma and smirking as Maverick’s eyes started to glaze over. “I was the bait.”

* * *

Karma looked over his tables of tools again and took a deep breath. Yoshida had just sent the signal saying they had the target and were on their way, so now it was Karma’s turn. He tensed slightly when he felt Okuda wrap her arms around him from behind. 

“You’re going to do amazing, Karma.” she said confidently. “You’ve been working so hard and you know what you’re doing.”

Karma shrugged, but felt Okuda’s arms tighten around him. She had insisted on coming along to see her neurotoxin in person, but now Karma was suspecting that she really just wanted to make sure he wouldn’t freeze. He kinda wished she hadn’t come, though. As nice as it was to have her here, torturing someone didn’t really seem like something a guy was supposed to do in front of his girlfriend. 

“It’s ok to be nervous.” Okuda turned him around so he was facing her and smiled. “Just remember what Korosensei always says and make sure that you focus on enjoying yourself and having fun. You wouldn’t have volunteered for this job if you weren’t looking forward to it!”

Karma smirked and was about to say something when he heard a laugh and they both whipped around to see Nagisa leaning against the doorframe, “Wow, Karma, you’ve really rubbed off on Okuda, haven’t you? She’s talking about you torturing a guy like you’re about to play a football game or something.”

Karma scowled, “Shut up, Nagisa, that’s my girlfriend you’re talking about!”

Okuda giggled, “It’s ok, Karma, you don’t have to defend my honor or anything. Afterall, it  _ is _ kind of crazy, right?”

“Weren’t you supposed to bring somebody with you?” Karma huffed. 

“Calm down,” Nagisa rolled his eyes, “Yoshida’s bringing him in from the car.”

Right on cue, Yoshida came shuffling through the door with an unconscious Maverick thrown over his shoulder, “Where do you want this guy, Karma? He’s just about as heavy as he looks.”

Karma hurried over the chair he’d prepared in the center of the room. It was heavy and bolted to the floor so that even if Maverick tried to break it, he wouldn’t be able to. There were leather and metal straps for his wrists and ankles as well, just in case the neurotoxin wore off before Karma had all the information he wanted. 

“Do you remember the correct injection site?” Okuda asked nervously.

“Yep, right between the joints halfway down his neck.” Nagisa gave her a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry about a thing, Okuda. I know I work more with knives than needles, but it’s basically the same concept.”

Karma laughed when she didn’t look reassured at all and he went over to stand beside her, placing a hand on her shoulder, “Don’t worry, Okuda. I’ve known Nagisa for a long time now, and if any of the morons in our class can pull this off, he can.”

Nagisa grabbed a syringe from his pocket and went to stand behind Maverick, “Are you ready?”

Okuda looked up at Karma, who smiled at her and nodded. She grinned and turned back to Nagisa, “Do it!”

Nagisa smiled and quickly jabbed the needle into Maverick’s neck. Karma didn’t know what he was looking for, and maybe it was just because the guy was currently unconscious, but he didn’t even flinch. 

“Umm,” Yoshida looked between Maverick and Okuda, “did it do anything?”

“We won’t know until he wakes up.” Okuda said. “Hmm, the tranquilizer might wear off on it’s own, but I brought some adrenaline in case you guys wanted to wake him up faster. I made sure it wouldn’t interfere with the neurotoxin.”

Karma shrugged and nodded, “Why not? It’s probably best to do this quick anyway, so our classmates aren’t just sitting around bored.”

Okuda smiled and grabbed a vile from her pocket and handed it to Nagisa, who filled a syringe and injected it into Maverick. They all waited with baited breath in front of Maverick as he sluggishly blinked his eyes open and looked around the room, slightly confused, as his eyes adjusted to the dim light of the room. Suddenly, his eyes widened and his searching grew more frantic as he seemingly realized what happened. 

“What the fuck?!” He growled. “W-why can’t I move?”

“That would be my doing.” Okuda said shyly, but Karma could hear the pride in her voice as she hesitantly walked up to Maverick and poked his hand, making him flinch. “Good, so you  _ can _ still feel. I was worried for a second I’d done something wrong.”

“What the fuck did you do to me?” The veins in Maverick’s forehead were practically popping from how angry he was. He looked at each of them until his eyes fell on Nagisa, “You’re that bitch from earlier! I’m gonna crush you!”

“Yeah, good luck with that.” Karma laughed. “Nagisa’s the best we’ve got. Even if you  _ could _ move, you still wouldn’t stand a chance against him.”

He smirked as Maverick’s face went pale, “H-him?!”

“Oh, did you actually think Nagisa was a girl?” Karma’s smile grew a little wider. “I don’t blame you for falling for his little act. He does look pretty gorgeous in a skirt.”

“K-karma!” Nagisa had turned bright red as he stuttered, “You can’t say stuff like that! Your girlfriend is right there!”

“What?” Karma smirked down at Nagisa, enjoying his embarrassment, “Are you saying I’m wrong?”

Okuda’s giggle cut through their teasing, “Karma, stop teasing him! Nagisa, I brought you some pants if you want to change.”

“Oh thank god!” Nagisa grabbed the bag from her and practically ran to the other room. 

“Just wear the skirt you coward!” Karma called after him. 

“Fuck you!” 

Karma laughed and turned back to Maverick, “Well, now that  _ that’s  _ out of the way, let’s get started.”

“And that’s my cue to head out.” Yoshida pushed himself off the wall he’d been leaning against. “I’m totally cool with taking  _ cars _ apart, but I’m not really sure I’ve got the stomach to see it being done to a human.”

Maverick paled again and Okuda ran to open the door for Yoshida, “Would you like me to walk you out?”

Yoshida shook his head, “I’m good, I’ve got to go make sure the truck is ready for later. You can go ahead and stay here with your boyfriend. Enjoy the show or whatever it is you two crazies do for fun.”

“Aww!” Karma grinned. “Are you sure you don’t want to stay? It’s gonna be so much fun!”

Yoshida shuddered, “Yeah, I’m good. See ya later!”

“What do you think you’re gonna do to me?” Maverick was obviously using his anger to mask his fear. “You’re just a bunch of snot nosed kids, do you really think you can kill me?”

“Oh don’t worry, we’ll kill you eventually.” Karma walked over to his tool table and grabbed a knife, making sure Maverick could see exactly what he was doing. “But first, you’re gonna tell us about the Liberation Dogs.”

Maverick gulped.

* * *

“How much longer do you think it’s gonna be?” Rio whined. “I’m getting bored!”

“Torture takes time, Rio.” Kayano rolled her eyes. “Movies aren’t always accurate to reality.”

“Ok!” Right on cue, Ritsu appeared on Rio’s phone. “Karma just sent the locations we need. There’s five of them, so that’s about four of us to each location. Let’s go!”

* * *

The five heads of the Liberation Dogs were all gathered in a small apartment, maps and alcohol spread on the table in front of them as they planned their next attack. Everything was going perfectly. The stupid government was too scared to stand in their way and there was already starting to be an atmosphere of panic whenever someone whispered the name of their group. It wouldn’t be long until they could leverage that terror to get whatever they wanted and no one could do anything about it. 

“There won’t be enough people at that time…” The speaker was cut off by another member’s phone ringing. “Who is it? Don’t they know not to bother us at this time?”

The man shrugged and looked at his phone, “It’s from base three...Hello?”

His eyes widened slightly and he ignored the confused look of the others as he quickly put the phone on speaker and set it on the table. 

“Are...are those gunshots?” The mood immediately became tense. If their soldiers felt the need to call them, it obviously wasn’t a small skirmish that they couldn’t handle themselves.

“Are those idiots in the government really making a move?” Someone asked. “Don’t they know we have other bases? Even if they shut that one down, we still have more than enough men to make them regret it.”

There was a chorus of agreement from the others at the table which was interrupted almost immediately by the ringing of another phone. The murmurs quickly died down as the owner of the phone put it on speaker and answered it, only to hear more gunshots, accompanied by screams this time. 

“Call the other bases. If this is a coordinated attack, there might still be time to warn them.”

Three of the men quickly got their phones and dialed, putting them on speaker as they rang. The group waited with baited breath, waiting for confirmation that their bases were still secure. Two of the phones went to voicemail, which, considering that their men knew to answer a call from the leaders, wasn’t a good sign, and the third…

“Help!” More gunshots. “Shit! They’re killing everyone! What the fuck, they’re just a bunch of kids!”

“Actually, they’re a bunch of assassins.”

The men scrambled to their feet and reached for their weapons as a soft voice spoke from the shadows. Before anyone could shoot, a young man with blue hair and a calm smile stepped forward into the light. They looked at the boy, then at each other, each relaxing slightly. The kid couldn’t be more than fifteen, so even if he  _ was _ part of this attack, he wouldn’t even stand a chance. 

“Is this some kind of prank, kid? You and your little friends should know better than to mess with us. Don’t you know how many people are dead because of us?”

The kid rolled his eyes, “In life, as in assassination, underestimating an oponant can be a fatal mistake. As you just heard, my classmates are currently attacking every single one of your bases. Our two best snipers are tracking down any of your memberst that happen to be out of the office. And I’m here. So,” he smiled, “are you really 100% sure that this is a prank?”

They were starting to get slightly nervous, “Either way, how do you even know about all the locations. Only the men in this room and the base leaders know them all.”

“Hmm, base leaders, huh?” The boy seemed to think for a moment. “That must have been what Maverick was then. He died in a lot of pain, if that’s any consolation.”

“That’s impossible!” One of the men growled. “Maverick was strong. He couldn’t have been taken out by a snot-nosed brat like  _ you!”  _

The kid shrugged, “I wasn’t the one who killed him, my best friend did. You, however...you, I’m going to kill.”

The boy ran forward and in the moment of hesitation as they wondered if they were really about to kill a child, he pulled a knife out of nowhere and stabbed the closest man though the heart. There was a moment of shocked silence before the kid moved again, jumping toward the next leader. He raised his gun to shoot the kid in the face, but the kid simply knocked the barrel aside so the shot went wide. There was a grunt from another man and the group realized in shock that the kid hadn’t just blocked the shot, he’d reaimed the gun to kill one of their own, then slit the shooter’s throat before he had a chance to recover from the shock. 

In under a minute, the leaders had gone from five to two. The two men hurried to put the table between them and the devil child, who was smiling as he walked toward them as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Carefully, they aimed their guns, sure that there was no way the kid could block their shot from this far back. Just as they were about to pull the trigger, however, there was a sharp swish as a knife sliced through the air and embedded itself into one of their skulls.

The last man standing scowled at their attacker, “You bastard! You’re going to pay for that!”

He pulled the trigger and screamed when the gun exploded in his face. He could barely see as he dropped the gun and clutched his bloody hands to what was left of his face, the sheer pain of it all bringing him to his knees. He had to get away. This kid...no, this  _ assassin _ was going to kill him if he stayed. If he could just get to the door, he could run and get his revenge another day.

“Sorry about the explosion.” The kid said calmly. “But a knife to the barrel will do that. I wasn’t planning on you actually shooting while your gun was jammed though, so I thought you’d just throw the gun aside rather than causing a backfire, but, hey, it all worked out, didn’t it?”

Almost there. If he could just drag himself the last few feet, then….a pair of feet stepped right in front of him, blocking his path, and he practically cried when he followed them up to see the boy. 

“Who…” The man glanced behind his attacker at the door, which was so close, yet impossibly far at the same time, and he couldn’t hold back the tears as he finally realized that he was going to die. “Who are you?”

“Us?” The kid crouched in front of him and smiled. “We’re the assassination classroom.”

* * *

The class stood silently in the clearing, the light from the bonfire flickering off each of them and the surrounding trees. It had taken a few hours to gather the bodies from the various locations and bring them all here, but soon enough, there wouldn’t be anything left except for bones to bury. Normally at a class bonfire, people would be laughing and passing around marshmallows to make smores, but they’d all agreed that would be too weird. 

“We...we actually did it.” Rio said numbly. 

“Yeah.” Isogai said. “We really did.”

“We’re actually assassins now.” Kayano added. “We’re not just pretending or anything anymore. We’ve actually killed people.”

“I’m not sure if it was good for bad that there were so many targets on this mission.” Sugino said. “I mean, there were like ten or fifteen people at each base, right? It wasn’t just our group that had to kill two or three people each, was it?”

“Nope, it was all of us.” Itona said.

“I think I liked it better that way, honestly.” Maehara said. “I probably would have panicked after my first kill, but if I’d frozen right then, I would have been killed. I had to keep calm just to survive, and then the other kills weren’t as bad, you know?”

There was a murmur of assent as the class nodded.

“It was weird how confident I felt in the moment.” Nagisa said. “I was expecting to panic or freeze, like you said, but I didn’t. Instead, I just felt powerful, like holding someone’s life in my hands was something I’d always been meant to do.”

“I know what you mean, Nagisa.” Karma smiled and threw his arm around Okuda. “I was almost afraid that I wouldn’t enjoy the torture as much as I thought I would, but I ended up having a lot of fun!”

“Yeah.” Rio grinned. “Me too. Guys, we did it!” 

The somber mood started to dissipate as the class smiled and congratulated each other. Some people started sharing stories of their kills and how it made them feel, and others laughed as Karma talked about Maverick’s reaction to finding out that Nagisa was actually a boy. None of them noticed their teachers silently entering the clearing with a tray of hot chocolate until Korosensei cleared his throat. 

“It’s good to see you all laughing!” He said. “Finding the light in the darkness is essential to anyone, but to assassins especially. Our life is not an easy one, but laughter prevents our darkness from dragging us down, don’t you agree?”

The class stared at him wide-eyes as they realized that he had included them in the same group as them. But they were, weren’t they? They had each killed people that night, which meant they were assassins now, trained by the first Reaper, but killers in their own right. 

“You’ll all be sleeping out here tonight.” Karasuma said. “None of you should be alone right now. Nightmares are normal after what you all just went through, so don’t worry about waking anyone up. The three of us will also be around if you need someone to talk to. Korosensei will bring sleeping bags in a few minutes, once you’ve all had your chance to drink your hot chocolate. ”

“Normally, I’d complain that it doesn’t make sense to go to sleep at sunrise.” Irina said. “But you kids had a long night, so I doubt you’ll even care. You’ll all be out like a light in no time.”

They handed out mugs as the boys added some more wood to the fire to make sure it kept burning hot enough to destroy the bodies. Korosensei grabbed a tissue and started crying loudly, “Oh, I’m so proud of all of you! You took on full grown adults and won! I can’t believe you’re all real assassins now! Oh, that first kill is always so special and it stays with you, and it’s even more special for all of you because you did it together! Oh, I’m just so proud.”

“Pull yourself together.” Karasuma scowled. “If you’re just going to cry about how proud you are, the least you can do is make yourself useful and go get the kids’ sleeping bags.”

“Aww…” Korosensei pouted, but was gone a second later in a puff of air. 

Nagisa looked around as he sipped his hot chocolate. The sky was getting lighter by the minute and the fire was still burning strong as his classmates laughed and teased each other, a feeling of pride filling the whole clearing. Nagisa took a sip of his drink and looked up at the sky, where the sun was just starting to peek over the easter horizon. It was the dawning of a new day, and the dawning of a new day for E class. 

And Nagisa was planning on taking advantage of every minute of it. 

  
  



End file.
